178 THE CHESTNUT. 



of the Apennines, where the impervious canopy was sup- 

 ported by the columnar trunks of the enormous trees ; 

 and there, and in many parts of the Alps, the peasants 

 depend greatly on the chestnuts ; for the bread they live 

 on is very much, if not altogether, composed of the farina 

 obtained from the nuts. We remember participating in 

 one of the most interesting scenes we ever beheld, whilst 

 penetrating that extensive Chestnut- forest which covers 

 the body of the Valombrosan Apennine, for nearly five 

 miles upwards. It was a holiday, and a group of peasants, 

 of both sexes, dressed in the gay and picturesque attire of 

 the neighbourhood of the Arno, were sporting and dancing 

 on a piece of naturally level and well-cropped turf, which 

 spread itself beneath these gigantic trees, whilst the in- 

 most recesses of the forest were, ever and anon, made to 

 resound to their mirth and their music. Some were beat- 

 ing down the chestnuts with sticks ; others, for their own 

 refreshment, were picking out the contents from the pali- 

 sadoed castles in which the kernels lie intrenched ; and 

 when newly gathered from the tree, nothing can be more 

 sweet or pleasing to the palate : whilst others, and parti- 

 cularly the girls, were carrying on an amusing warfare of 

 love, by pelting one another with the fruit. It seemed to 

 us as if the golden age had been restored ; and that, 

 abandoning all the luxuries and attendant evils of civilized 

 life, mankind had voluntarily returned to their pristine 

 simplicity of fare, when the escidus and the Chestnut-tree 

 yielded them their innocuous food, and when the inno- 

 cency of their lives corresponded with that of their rustic 

 nutriment." 



The Chestnut will thrive in most situations, except 

 where the soil is stiff and tenacious ; it prefers a deep 

 sandy loam, but, as we have seen, attains a great size at a 

 considerable elevation among the mountains of the south 

 of Europe, In England it grows with the greatest 

 rapidity in the rich loamy soils of the valleys, but its 

 timber is then brittle and useless ; in sheltered situations, 



